In 1982, A Ford Van was purchased to assist in transporting firefighters and equipment to scenes and other functions for the Company. Then, in 1984, a Ford F350 Chassis was purchased with a Rescue body that would serve the Company for the next 12 years on Rescue calls, QRS calls and other incidents! In 1985, Engine 1 was refurbished by Pierce for the sum of $68,000. A whole new rear body was built on the chassis and gave new life to an aging fire engine. The pump was increased to 1250 gallons per minute and the water tank now held 750 gallons. This truck would go onto serve another 27 years before being retired, and not because it was beyond being useful, but, because only two active firefighters could still drive a standard transmission! The truck is now owned by one of our members, and still looks as good as the day it left our garage.
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The first major flood in many years to hit our area occurred in May 1986, and we supported our neighboring communities (Etna and the area known as the Shaler Flats off Rt. 8 with much needed assistance). A whole week was devoted to helping flood victims by pumping out basements and delivering food. This disaster seems to have repeated itself many times over in the last several years, mostly in the Etna and Millvale Boroughs.
In March 1989, bids were received for the purchase of a new 28’ refreshment trailer to replace the trailer being used during Street Fairs. This custom, one-of-a-kind trailer was purchased for $7,481 and is presently still being used for our fundraiser in July each year. Around this same time, Chief Jack Klosky came up with the novel idea to purchase aluminum Alcoa wheels for Engine 1, to compliment the good looks of the truck, and the members would have to sell rip-off tickets at Bingo to pay for them before they would be purchased. We won many trophies over the years with this truck, and those wheels were definitely one of the reasons why.
A major milestone in our history occurred in 1990 when we purchased an American LaFrance 75’ ladder truck/pumper, commonly referred to as a Quint. Equipped with 500 gallons of water, a 1500 gallon per minute pump, and a 75’ ladder, this truck was capable of reaching the windows or roofs of a building for rescue purposes or a master stream of water, at a moment’s notice. With only one other ladder truck in Shaler Township at that time, we saw an immediate increase of requests for our members to respond all over the area, and into other communities where we rarely responded.
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1994 was another history-filled year as we ordered a new Spartan chassis to replace both our 1978 Mack pumper and 1984 Ford rescue truck, with the body being built by JB Rescue Company in Moon Twp. This truck would not be fully completed until June 1996, and would be identified as a Rescue 1, even though it did include a 1500 gpm pump and 500 gallons of water. The cost of this piece of fire apparatus was $343,900, excluding any equipment on it. In October of 1994, the fire company celebrated 75 years of existence with a banquet in our Main Hall, with Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire Chief Charlie Dickinson being the keynote speaker. Many activities were held throughout the year to celebrate, including a first-ever antique fire engine display at Shaler High School, an open house, and the completion of a mosaic-tile artwork of the 75th Anniversary emblem, which was hung in our Main Hall till the following year. On January 27th, 1995, our last original charter member from 1919, Herman “Dutch” Schweitzer, passed away. In the fall of 1995 and into the spring of 1996, our members, their families and friends gathered multiple times, to construct a mosaic-tile artwork of the Shaler Township Police Department’s patch, which was donated to Shaler Township and permanently installed in the foyer of the new police department offices, during the dedications celebrations in 1996.
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In the later portion of the 1990’s, Shaler Township Police Department turned over their control of emergency dispatching (referred to as KGE-409) to a newly formed dispatch center known as Newcom, still located in the Municipal building. In January 1999, Cherry City no longer identified themselves on their base radio as “KGE-289” but was formerly acknowledged as Station 260. In 1998, we replaced our 1982 Ford Squad with another similar Ford Extended Window Van.
We continued to obtain new equipment to further our goals of assisting our neighbors, and in June 1999 we were given our first AED (Automated External Defibrillator), in which we installed on Rescue 1. Later in December, we purchased our first Thermal Imaging Camera, which is used to locate “hot spots” before or after a fire has been extinguished.
Continue On Your Journey!
